Group4_B | SDG 4: Quality Education

QUALITY EDUCATION

Introduction to the SDG:

The UN SDG refers to a collection of 17 interlinked goals. Many of the SDGs target injustices resulting from the lack of access to education and a failure to acquire knowledge. Worldwide 262 million children did not attend school in 2017. The situation is likely to have worsened in the face of the covid 19 crisis. The goal of sustainable development for quality education is to secure inclusive quality education for everybody. The pandemic has highlighted the differential experiences of women and men and the role of lack of appropriate understanding. It is impossible to understand the potential of education to transform gender relations and make a meaningful impact on these differences. Educating women and girls is a hugely powerful way to address global poverty. It can help them guard against gendered exploitation and abuse by giving women and families options in life, including career opportunities and family planning. The lack of opportunity for tertiary education in low and low middle-income countries can have huge ramifications. If nearly 75% of students who leave do not return after their studies, the supply of professionals will be constrained with inevitable consequences for local populations. There have been adverse effects on the economic prospects of rural and regional towns and the aforementioned countries. Education transforms life for the better. It enables socioeconomic mobility breaking cycles of violence, poverty, and indignity. It is critical in reducing inequalities and improving gender equity.

Relevance of the SDG to India:

Eighty-seven million people are illiterate in India, which is 37% of the global total. Every 11th child in India is a victim of child labour. Over 10.1 million kids are working in various industries to support their families. Between the ages of 6 and 14, less than half of India's youngsters attend school. Over a third of all first-graders progress to the eighth grade. At least 35 million youngsters between the ages of 6 and 14 do not go to school. In the age bracket of 5 to 9 years, 53% of females are illiterate. These statistics have only worsened during the pandemic. While government programs contribute to the progress towards achieving Global Goals, it is essential to put a coordinating and monitoring mechanism in place. At the national level, NITI Aayog is the government institution responsible for the overall coordination and monitoring of the SDGs in the country.

With the world's 17% of the population, India holds the key to global SDG achievement and is fully committed to achieving the global goals within the specified timelines. The country is well aware of the prospect that if India does not meet the SDGs, the world will be far from achieving them. To fast track the progress towards meeting the SDGs, India's developmental schemes and programs have been aligned with the Global Goals. Some government schemes aim to achieve this goal and targets, such as the flagship government scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which aims to achieve universal quality education for all Indians and is complemented in this effort by targeted schemes on nutritional support, higher education, and teacher training. National Program for Education of Girls at Elementary Education (NPEGEL), Midday Meal Scheme, Right to Education (RTE) Act, Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Scheme for Infrastructure Development in Minority Institutes (IDMI). Businesses have also started to align their CSR spending, including core business practices, to impact the SDGs, among others. While these efforts are commendable and critical, it is also equally important to ensure regular monitoring of progress at all levels to keep a sight on the trajectory of results.

Business Implication and Responses:

CSR has always been viewed as a charity activity in India. With the addition of Section 135 to the Companies Act of 2013, India became the first country to make CSR mandatory for certain businesses. Companies with a total net worth of 500 crore or more, a turnover of INR 1,000 crore or more, or a net profit of 5 crore or more during the previous financial year must spend 2% of their average net earnings over the previous three years on CSR operations, according to the Act.

 

The Indian government has been prioritizing the education of the citizens for many decades now, but we are still trying to achieve the volume of literates in the country. The quality of education offered to the students was still not up to the mark compared to the west and other developing countries. The budget of Rs 93,224 crore allocated to the ministry of education in the financial budget 2020-21 was the second-highest allocation for a sector. The government’s new education policy introduced last year was something very importantly needed as the curriculum has been the same for the past 20 years, and was needed to be brought in pace to the current times.

 

With that in mind, let us have a look at each Company.

 

Accenture:

·       Quest App: Created app that helped in development of Communicative English and Digital Literacy, leveraging the higher adoption of mobile and lower data plans in the country.

·       65,000 Youth benefitted

·       Multi-language availability

·       In consonance with Government-Run vocational centres

 

 Aditya Birla Group:

·       56 Schools run by ABG- educating 46,500 Students. Scholarships to 32,000 students from the interiors

·       Differently abled students benefitted Baroda, Odisha

·       4,50,000 students provided solar lamps

·       E-learning app called KHEL benefitted 7500 students

 

Wipro:

·       Education CSR, started in 2001, now evolved into their largest program, ‘The Earthian Program’

·       CSR program also for Differently abled

·       WASE and WiSTA- Scholarships and Fellowships

·       Santoor Women’s Scholarship for girls- for post K-12 girl students from economically disadvantaged societies

 

Intellect Design:

·       CSR started in 1997

·       Ulhas trust- Voluntary program by employee

·       Targets students in higher K12 programs, between 9^th and 12^th Standard

·       25,000 students benefitted

 

Amazon:

·       Upskilling and Educating women in Maharashtra

·       Started in 2017-Targets hygiene, customer engagement, inventory management and production indenting

·       Delivering Smiles’ campaign- 5000 students benefitted

·       National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme- 1000+ students, affected by pandemic, benefitted

Thus, we can see that each company has a specified outreach program, adding a good strategy between their organic business model and their CSR outreach.

Analysis and Suggested Path ahead

Accenture:

Accenture places great importance on Education as a UN SDG, as it is a natural fit for the organization, which would benefit from a skilled workforce in the regions it operates. Given the context of the Covid lockdowns in 2020, the development of a mobile app for Quest App, with the Quest Alliance, equips them with the skills they need for the job market. This includes helping them craft resumes, prepare for job interviews, understand the importance of teamwork, handle workplace harassment and interact with customers. Available in several Indian languages, the content is aligned with the employability skills curriculum for government-run vocational training centres. (Accenture, 2020)

 

Aditya Birla Group:

The CSR focus of ABG seems to be the most divergent from their core businesses, as they seem to target school children, for their betterment and growth. The extensive work done for their K12 program in the many hinterland states reflects the vision of ABG to develop education, as a strategic fit for their vision for holistic growth, from which other companies such as Accenture and Wipro can develop talent further. Furthermore, sponsored mid-day meals for 50,000 children in 625 schools, across Lucknow, Jaipur, Mysore, Bengaluru, Surat, Vadodara, Puri, Cuttack and Ahmedabad. Thus, their policy seems to be the most exhaustive and geared towards the betterment of K-12 Education in the country. 

 

Wipro: 

The majority of their CSR budget is directed towards education and skilling initiatives, believing that good education brings about a better society. Wipro started working on education reforms back in 2001 and has been bringing change in education for the past two decades by working on the issues related to school reform or by supporting organizations doing good work in this area. Wipro scholarships and fellowships such as WASE and WiSTA, rather than the usual mode of monetary assistance, expose the promising students to the latest tech in their field that will prove fruitful in their career of choice. In Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, they have started Santoor Women’s Scholarship for girls who passed class 12 and were inclined to pursue higher studies but lack the means to. From all these different initiatives, Wipro is helping India to achieve the SDG 4 goal of having quality education for all.

 

Intellect Design Arena: 

Through its CSR initiatives, the company has always tried to focus on providing better education facilities to the younger generation. The ‘Ullas Trust’ started in 1997 works towards recognizing academic excellence in students from economically challenged sections of the society and empowers them through self-enrichment programs and workshops. The Trust has so far touched the lives of over 25,000 young students in India and has been awarded India’s best CSR company by BSE- NASSCOM in 2008.

 

Amazon:

The CSR venture seems to be a natural extension for Amazon’s strategy as it would unleash the business opportunities for this demographic, from whose wares and sales, Amazon could benefit as a marketplace.

Amazon India has also taken up various initiatives to promote online education in India. During the pandemic, as the informal workers found themselves on the backfoot, Amazon launched a ‘Delivering Smiles’ campaign to mobilize support through donations to access virtual education to their kids. The company also partnered with 18 different NGOs to directly donate 5,000 4G enabled tablets for underprivileged students studying in government and government-aided schools, as they had no way to access education during the long pandemic. Across its fulfilment centres, the company launched a skilling program under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme to train 1000+ youths whose learning and placements were impacted due to Covid-19.

 

Apart from these, there are some famous other initiatives by other companies like:

 

·       Vidyadhanam by Tata Motors Limited

·       The School Project by Thermax Limited

·       Project Oil Super 30 by Oil India Limited

·       Nanhi Kali by Mahindra and Mahindra Limited

·       Promoting Education by Vodafone Idea Limited

·       Satya Bharti School Program by Bharti Infratel Limited

·       Project Agastya by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited

 

Way Forward

For a Good CSR policy to match with the company vision, there needs to be synergy amongst the different companies highlighted in this blog. India has a huge potential demographic dividend that can only help these companies, creating an entrepreneurial spirit among the disadvantaged communities among the rural and hinterlands, which many fear could be left behind in the digital divide of our country. Companies like ABG are promoting K12 education infrastructure setup that, other companies need to also contribute to, and then leverage on their expertise in technology apps like Quest App and Talent Next, to create a highly-skilled workforce. 

References

 

https://thecsrjournal.in/wipro-csr-report-azim-premji/

https://csrbox.org/India_CSR_news_Top-10-Education-CSR-Projects-in-India-in-2018_361

https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/quality-education-in-india-sdg-4/

https://m.economictimes.com/news/india-unlimited/csr/news/integrating-csr-strategy-with-business-strategy/articleshow/57033357.cms

https://indiacsr.in/corporate-social-responsibility-csr-amazon-india-aiming-upskilling-of-1000-youths-under-skill-development-program/

https://www.intellectdesign.com/investor/general/csr-policy.pdf

https://csrbox.org/India_CSR_news_Top-10-Education-CSR-Projects-in-India-in-FY-2019-20_934

Accenture, 2020. Building a Future of shared success CSR Report, s.l.: Accenture.

Anon., n.d. Aditya Birla Group CSR. [Online]
Available at: https://www.adityabirla.com/csr/making-difference#parentHorizontalTab2
[Accessed 2021].

Report, I. D. C., 2019. Intellect Design CSR Report, s.l.: s.n.

Staff, A., 2019. Amazon. [Online]
Available at: https://www.aboutamazon.in/news/community/women-of-rural-maharashtra-pave-their-own-path-to-a-brighter-future

Staff, W., 2020. Wipro CSR Charter and Policy, s.l.: Wipro.